Aceyalone's 2003 album, Love and Hate, inspired a lot of hand-wringing, with critics bemoaning the glaringly obvious gap between the MC's slick, flowery raps and his bullshit-ass beats. It looked as though he'd hit a career zenith with 1995's All Balls Don't Bounce (reissued in 2004) and wasn't destined to produce anything else worth writing about. But this year, Aceyalone has made a comeback. On his phenomenal new joint, Magnificent City, the MC isolates what was good about Love and Hate (producer RJD2) and either casts off the bad (fellow beat cobblers Sayyid and Priest) or tones it down (his penchant for moralizing and philosophizing without actually saying anything). RJD2's beats — a seamless garage-funk blend of horn loops, vocal vamps and electric organs — enhance and sometimes outpace the MC's verbal stylings, but on most tracks, Aceyalone proves himself worthy. The persona he cultivates on this album — sarcastic, dislocated, tired of the world — is what he should've been going for on Love and Hate. Maybe he needed three years to grow into it.
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